Rummikub quickly became a hit at Wickham Park Senior Center

BY BARBARA JEAN MEAD

Rosalie Novak got hooked on rummikub and shares her passion for the game from 1 to 4 p.m. every Wednesday at the Wickham Park Senior Center at 2785 Leisure Way in Melbourne.

“I live in a 55-and-older community and every Sunday we got together and played (the card game) Hand and Foot,” Novak said. “One day, somebody said, ‘Did you ever play rummikub?’ I said I never even heard of it. She said, ‘Oh it’s a great game. I have one. I’m going to show you.’ Well, the minute we played, I loved it. It’s a quick game everybody can play.”

Rummikub is pronounced rummy cube and is played like a combination of rummy and mahjong. It is a tilebased game best played with two to four players.

The object of the game is to be the first player to eliminate all the tiles from your rack by forming one or more sets.

To start, each player picks a tile from the 106 tiles (two sets numbered 1 through 13 in four colors; black, red, blue and orange and two joker tiles). Each player picks the tile from the tiles face down on the table and the player with the highest number goes first, with play proceeding clockwise around the table.

Players put the tiles back on the table facedown and each player draws 14 tiles and places them on their rack and the opening set starts.

In each player’s first turn, they try to make a set from their tiles of one or more groups or runs that add up to 30 points. If they can’t play, they draw a tile and their turn ends.

Once each player has made their first turn, they can add more tiles to groups and runs that are already on the table.

Novak approached the president of the Senior Center and volunteered to establish the game in an unoccupied room at the center. She started out with two tables and advertised in the February 2022 flier. The first two weeks she had so many people there, she had to get two more tables and bought four games and donated them to the center.

Membership to Wickham Park Senior Center is $20 a year. It costs $1 to play for Senior Center members; $3 for non-members. SL